12 Carats

Many people equate the term carat with the size of a diamond, and as carat size increases, so will the carat weight. But the operative word there is weight. Carat refers to the weight of a diamond and is equal to roughly 200 milligrams which is less than a ¼ of an ounce. A carat can also be broken up into 100 points. So ¾ of a carat is also 75 points.

The heavier in carat weight a diamond is, the rarer it becomes. Prices of diamond increase exponentially with the weight of the diamond, so a one-carat diamond will cost much more than two ½-carat diamonds, given that other qualities, such as color and clarity, are equal.

The cutting of a diamond can impact the size of it, so depending on how their cut, two one-carat diamonds can look unequal. If a stone is cut flatter, then it will appear bigger, while a deeper cut stone will be smaller, but may have more brilliance and scintillation. You may be tempted to purchase a stone that’s cut flatter so that you can have the appearance of a larger, or heavier stone. But a diamond that’s cut too flat will have too little brilliance and can look cloudy. Carat weight is important, but there’s no point to sacrificing other qualities that make a diamond special so you can say you have a two-carat stone. A beautiful one-carat diamond, with outstanding brilliance and scintillation is going to be the better choice, from both a personal standpoint and an investment standpoint.

A smaller diamond can always be enhanced with baguettes, trillians or smaller same-shape stones on either size. As we stated earlier, two smaller stones won’t cost as much as an equally-weighted single stone, so you can increase the importance of the ring you’re buying without doubling your cost.

Fire

The term fire is commonly used to describe a diamond, but what does it refer to? The ancient Greeks thought that fire in a diamond symbolized the eternal flame of love. Fire in a diamond is the dispersed light that appears as rainbow-like flashes of color. You can usually observe a diamond’s fire in places like restaurants or clubs where the light is lower. The amount of fire depends on how the stone is cut and faceted. Older cut diamonds appear as if they have more fire because they’re cut with steep crown angles and flatter tables of the facets.

Other characteristics that are used to evaluate a diamond include brilliance and scintillation. Brilliance requires both brightness and contrast in the diamond and refers to how light is reflected back to the viewer, or return-of-light in the diamond trade. To many jewelers, it’s the most important quality in a diamond, and is what people react to when they exclaim over a diamond.

Diamonds also have a quality called scintillation. Scintillation refers to how light disperses from the stone when it’s moved. While brilliance is the quality of dispersed light when the diamond is in a stationary position, scintillation is observed when the diamond moves in the light. They’re closely related qualities, while fire is a different attribute.

The way a diamond is cut will determine how much fire or brilliance it has, and often one may have to make a trade-off for one quality or another. Which way is the best way to go? For the most part, most diamonds are cut more for brilliance and scintillation rather than for fire. When shopping for a diamond remember that it’s in investment, yes. But what really matters is whether you love it. Qualities like brilliance vs. fire really do pale in comparison to that one critical element!

Fluorescence

We’re all familiar with the 4Cs of diamonds – cut, color, clarity and carat weight. But diamonds also possess a quality called fluorescence that’s part of the evaluation and assessment of a diamond. It’s actually called photo-luminescence and it’s caused by small amounts of the chemical boron in the diamond. It’s activated by UV light.

It’s graded by how much blue there is in the diamond – None, Faint, Medium, Medium blue, Strong, Strong Blue and Intense Blue. At one time, this was a highly-prized quality in a diamond and the demand for a blue-white diamond was high. The blue indicated the fluorescence of the diamond, while white was a reference to the overall color of the body of the stone. This has decreased over time as consumer preference shifted towards the more colorless stones.

The tide of public preference may be shifting back to the blue-white diamond, but you want to be sure, when buying a diamond, that you examine it under a variety of conditions, such as sunlight and fluorescent light, as well as a jeweler’s black light. Some diamonds with a fluorescent quality can become hazy in daylight or even glow out on the dance floor!

Colorless diamonds have become increasingly rare and expensive. The color grades of D (flawless) to G are going to be hard to come by at a reasonable price. If you’re buying a diamond with a color grade of H or higher, some fluorescence may actually be a good attribute for it and increase your stone’s value and attractiveness, as the blue fluorescence can offset any other gradations in the stone, such as a yellowish tone.

Although some diamonds have a yellow or orange fluorescence, most reputable jewelers will recommend against a diamond with this quality, unless you’re buying a colored diamond in the same hue, as a similar fluorescence will enhance and intensify that color.


                   

9 Couples diamond

The smart groom-to-be does his research before buying his fiancée a diamond ring! There are more styles and cuts to choose from than ever before. It’s not enough to be educated about the four Cs of diamonds – cut, color, clarity and carats. Now there are all types of diamond cuts and settings to choose from.

The most popular style is still the round brilliant. It’s one of the earliest cuts ever developed and now relies on precise mathematical equations to create a stone with fire and brilliance that the earliest gem cutters could only have dreamed of.

But many brides want something completely unique. There are many traditional cuts to choose from. A pear-shaped is just that – wider at one end than the other. Or she can choose an oval, emerald or heart-shaped diamond. There are other cuts with unique faceting, such as the square princess-cut diamond.

Some cuts are patented, like the elongated Ashoka diamond or the Asprey & Garrard Eternal cut diamond. Other branded and patented cuts include:

Elara – a square-cut diamond with rounded corners
Asscher – a square diamond with rounded facets that gives an unusual complexity to the diamond
Couples diamond – this diamond is faceted to reveal either a circle of hearts or arrows inside. It’s a truly unusual diamond that requires precise cutting for the image to appear properly.

The price of a diamond increases exponentially with its carat weight. A one-carat diamond costs much more than 10 10-point diamonds and a two-carat diamond costs more than twice as much as a one-carat diamond (given equal quality in other areas).

One way to enhance a ring is with embellishments such as baguettes or trillions. A baguette is a small emerald-shaped diamond that can be placed on either side of the main stones and a trillion is a triangle-shaped diamond that also is a good enhancement to the center stone.
                                           

Diamond cutting styles


Our love of diamonds and admiration of their fire and brilliance has given rise to many different cuts of diamonds. While we still see some of the earliest styles of diamond cuts – such as the round and emerald-cut, there are many more cuts today, some of them patented by their designers and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The most popular cut for a diamond ring today is still the round, brilliant cut. It was developed in the 17th century in Venice. It is still preferred when the raw crystal is in an octahedron formation. Even though as much as 50% of the stone is cut away in the process, often two stones can be carved from an octahedron. More unusually-shaped stones are used for fancy cuts, such as a marquise, pear or heart-shaped diamond. The earliest brilliants had 17 facets on the top of the stone and were called double-cut. This was soon improved with stones cut with 33 facets and were called triple-cut brilliants.

In the 19th century, with the development of better gem-cutting tools, more innovations in diamond cutting styles were developed. In 1919, Marcel Tolkowsky combined the art of cutting with the science of light and refraction and published his book, Diamond Design. These relatively recent geometric calculations were the forerunner of much of diamond cutting work today and led to other, more precise mathematical models engineered to enhance the fire and brilliance of diamonds.

There are now cuts such as the princess cut, trillions, ovals, pear and heart-shaped. Some innovative cutters have even fashioned star or butterfly-shaped diamonds! One patented cut, the Ashoka diamond, is an oblong cut with rounded, brilliant ends, and requires a stone 3 carats or larger. It’s an exceptionally beautiful (and pricey!) diamond shape. Tiffany has also patented a cut of diamond called the Lucida cut. It’s the lucky bride whose fiancé gives her one of these highly coveted stones!
                                             

Gem cutting – how it has changed over the years (50% of the original rough diamond is lost during the cutting of a round brilliant gem)

How does a lump of mineral or crystal become a dazzling diamond, ruby or sapphire? It’s an amazing process called gem cutting or lapidary and makes all the difference in the final value of the stone. It was developed first in Venice in the early 1300’s and was seen in Paris and Bruges in the mid-1400s.Good cutting is a precise art that catches the light just so, and captures the beauty of the gem. Poor cutting destroys it.

Most gems start out actually being sawed with a special lapidary saw into a rough shape, such as square, round, pear or marquise. It’s then ground with a diamond-infused wheel to further refine the shape. The gem cutter uses a series of finer and finer abrasives to get closer to the clear heart of the gem. Cabochon gems are polished to a smooth overall surface, sometimes held by hand, but more often fixed or “dopped” with wax or adhesive to a dowel to hold it while the lapidarist polishes the stone.

Transparent stones are most often faceted, a process where flat planes of the stone are cut and polished over the surface in a precise, symmetrical pattern. It’s critical that the planes match up perfectly, or the beauty of how the light is captured by the facets will be lost.
If a stone is cut to flat or not polished, the brilliance of the gem will also be lost. When a stone is properly faceted, it captures the light so it bounces around inside the stone, giving it the sparkle we love and that helps determine the value of the gem. If the stone is cut too flat, or the facets don’t meet precisely, the light doesn’t bounce off the angles in the facets to maximum effect.


 

Colors of gems

Gems come in every color of the spectrum. While sapphires, rubies and emeralds are what come to mind first when one thinks of a colored gem, there are so many other beautiful colored gemstones to consider. Even among gems normally associated with one color, there are gradations and variations to them. A sapphire, for example, comes in many different hues of blue, depending on where it’s from. But sapphires can also come in pink, yellow and green.

The most highly prized colored gems are in the very deepest, richest hues of the color. While sapphires can range from pale blue to near-black, the most valuable are a rich, deep blue. The same holds true for rubies. While they too can range in color from pale to very dark and murky, the most highly-valued color is what’s called pigeon’s blood, a deep blood-red ruby that is mined in what was once known as Burma.

The most expensive emeralds are a deep green, although emeralds themselves come in a broad spectrum of hues, from yellow-green to blue-green. All colored gems, and clear gems, depend on expert cutting and polishing to showcase the colors in all their subtleties and brilliance.

Generally the deeper and richer the color, the more valuable the stone. The best amethysts will be a dark, royal purple. A lighter-colored amethyst simply isn’t as valuable.

But many people prefer these lighter or darker gradations in color. And, they tend to be more affordable. A slightly lighter-colored amethyst is much easier to obtain than the “ideal” color, but is still a beautiful gemstone.

Oddly enough, diamonds are rated by how colorless they are. The less color, the higher the grade of diamond. Unless of course it’s a defined color such as a pink diamond or a canary diamond. These are almost as highly prized as a near-colorless diamond.
                                                                                                     

Why are most minerals not popular as gems?

There are millions of minerals that exist on the earth, but few of them are prized as gems and used for adornment. Many of them aren’t in colors that are usually highly prized for jewelry. Or they’re not able to be cut and polished to be made wearable as jewelry.

Often it’s a matter of changing taste and times. In Imperial Russia and in the Victorian era, the mineral malachite and other opaque minerals were highly valued as gemstones jewelry. It is often a by-product of copper mining, and is distinguished by a brilliant green color, with dark concentric circles of color swirling through it. It’s not as highly valued because it’s easily available and not as expensive as an emerald or ruby. But there is an entire room devoted to malachite in the Russian museum, the Hermitage, as testament to its desirability among the most privileged class of people.

There have been discoveries that indicate that malachite was mined in Egypt as early as 4,000 B.C. It’s a soft gem, and easily carved and shaped. It polishes to a beautiful, rich sheen. But still is not highly prized in the U.S. as a gemstone.

Very often some minerals simply shouldn’t be used as gemstones, but because of their beauty, people wear them as such anyway. A moonstone is one such gem. It’s relatively soft, with a rating of 6 on Moh’s scale of mineral hardness, compared to a diamond’s hardness rating of 10. It’s a type of mineral called orthoclase, but when it exhibits a translucent, milky quality, it’s then called moonstone.

Other minerals exist, but are simply not prized for gemstones. Among the more common minerals, quartz stands out as one that can be used for jewelry, as well as decorative items.

Common and uncommon gemstones


Gemstones quite literally can take our breath away when we see them. Who hasn’t seen a beautiful diamond or sapphire ring and exclaimed over it? Is it only their beauty that makes them so valuable? Why else are they valuable to us?

Most gemstones are minerals that occur naturally in the earth. The most common is quartz, which is made of silicon and oxygen, two of the most common chemicals or substances on the planet. Even though most people don’t find such crystals unless specifically looking for it, it’s still relatively common in the gem world.

One quality that determines the value of a gem is how rare it is. A diamond, believe it or not, is actually a more common gemstone. However, the sales and distribution  of diamonds are tightly controlled, which keeps the demand for diamonds of any characteristic in high value. Certainly perfect, flawless diamonds are truly rare, but diamonds themselves aren’t particularly rare.

Other gemstones are much rarer, such as sapphires and rubies, which are part of the beryl family of minerals. Rubies are rarer than sapphires and top quality colors in both are extremely rare.

A mineral called benitoite is found only in the San Benito valley in California, where only a few hundred carats of it are found each year. It is the state gem of California and is a hexagonal-shaped crystal. It can be cut and polished to produce sapphire-colored gemstone jewelry.

Some gems are even rarer than bentitoite. They’re so rare, that only three or four of them exist in the world. And the location where the gemstone was found can make a big difference as well. While peridot is a fairly common gem, there were actually several carats of peridot discovered in a meteorite, making that one of the rarest gems ever!
     

Gemstones are mineral crystals


What specifically are gems and gemstones? We know some of the most common ones – emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds. But what exactly are they, how are they made and why we do we prize them so highly?

The International Gem Society defines a gem as “a mineral that has been chosen for its beauty and durability, then cut and polished for human adornment.”

Most gems are minerals. Others, like pearls or amber, are created from living organisms. Usually gems are of a color that mirrors other natural elements we consider beautiful or valuable. Emeralds mirror the lush green of plant life, sapphires are the color of the sky and rubies are a rich blood-red. There are variations in color in all of these gems, of course, and in diamonds, but those are the colors most normally associated with them. Diamonds can come in colors as well, with pink and canary diamonds being highly prized variants.

Most gems are hard and durable, although pearls can be easily damaged, as can opals and moonstones. Usually a gemstone has to be durable enough to wear as adornment, but others, while too soft to wear, are valued by collectors. Pearls can eventually disintegrate, even if all you do is wipe dust off them. And if you spray hairspray or perfume on them, this can also damage your pearls.

Opals are highly prized for their beauty and fire and make exquisite jewelry, but are extraordinarily susceptible to damage. They can shatter easily if dropped. And there’s a story of a woman who wore an opal brooch to a holiday party. When she left the warmth of the party to leave and the brooch experienced the sudden drop in temperature, it shattered, just like a glass that’s been heated and then cooled too quickly.

     

Minerals are crystals

The earliest forms of jewelry were items that early humans found naturally, such as shells or bits of bones. Early gravesites have also revealed that pre-historic man buried his dead with flowers and with carved ivory beads. These primitive beads would have taken at least an hour each to make.

Early man also might have found bits of turquoise that occurred naturally in areas of Turkey and North America. The pearlescent swirls found inside an abalone or conch would have also been used as jewelry.

They might have also found the earliest types of precious gems in the form of natural crystals, such as quartz or diamonds. Crystals are solid substances where the molecules are arranged in a symmetrical fashion, and they generally fall into one of six shapes:

Isometric, or cubic crystals are shaped like blocks and are symmetrically shaped. An example of an isometric crystal would be pyrite. This is also called fool’s gold because it has a metallic yellow or brassy color similar to gold.
Tetragonal, where the crystals are shaped like four-sided prisms and pyramids. An example of a tetragonal crystal is the zircon.
Hexagonal crystals are shaped like six-sided prisms, or pyramids. An example of this kind of crystal is the beryl, which includes gems like emeralds and aquamarines.
Orthorhombic crystals. An example of an orthorhombic crystal is topaz. Topaz can come in a variety of colors, although the mostly highly prized is a deep amber color. At one time, topaz was much more valuable, until rich veins of it were found in Brazil, which devalued the market.
Monoclinic crystals are short and stubby, with tilted faces at each end. Monoclinic crystals include gypsum.
Triclinic crystals are usually flat with sharp edges but no right angles. Each crystal has three unequal axes. An example of triclinic crystal is feldspar.


 

Palaeolithic age


As a species, we love to adorn ourselves with jewelry, makeup, hair accessories. We do it now to enhance our looks, to attract a mate and because it just makes us feel good about ourselves. Some forms of adornment are symbolic – like wedding rings. Or they’re used to make a statement about our lifestyle, like multiple piercings and earrings.

Have you ever wondered what the origins are of such self-decoration? Was there a meaning behind it? Or did we just start wearing beads, necklaces and earrings as our awareness of self increased and as we evolved?

We know that the earliest jewelry of bits of bones, shells and other personal adornments appeared in graves about 40,000 years ago. The idea that there was an afterlife, and the belief in spirits both good and bad, gave rise to the means to attract the good spirits and ward off the bad ones.

People protected themselves from evil spirits with adornments in the form of necklaces or bracelets, and pierced themselves with the same bones and shells to have these amulets on their persons at all times. At this time people also started painting their bodies with red ochre, which can be considered the earliest form of makeup. They also started lining their eyes with kohl to protect themselves against the force known as the “Evil Eye.”

Even today, much jewelry takes the form of amulets. People wear crosses around their necks, or the Star of David, or wear a claddagh ring – all to attract good fortune or ward off bad luck. There are even more throwbacks to this earliest form of magic, such as a lucky rabbit’s foot, or a lucky penny. Or we often have less well known, more personal amulets that have a meaning to us alone, but are still worn as good luck charms and amulets.


 

50 Other

The appeal of diamonds and other precious gems has endured for eons. They confer on the wearer a feeling of beauty, value, status. We are drawn to them and we all have our personal favorites. Sometimes it’s our birthstone. For others, a particular stone reflects a favorite color. There is almost a magical feeling when you are near them, the energy they create it is palpable.

While the clear diamond has been the traditional stone of choice for engagement and wedding bands, other stones are actually more valued and prized because of their rarity. The sapphire has often been the stone of choice for royal betrothal rings. When Princess Diana selected her 18-carat sapphire-and-diamond engagement ring, she selected one of the rarest stones on the earth.  When Jennifer Lopez was engaged to Ben Affleck, she sported a 6-carat pink diamond ring. Camilla Parker-Bowles chose an emerald ring when she became engaged to Prince Charles.

We’ve become even more fascinated with beautiful jewelry because of the popularity of celebrity venues like award shows. Often this jewelry is on loan to the celebrity. At one time, we could only look at pieces like that a sigh wistfully. But with the creation of cubic zirconia, a nearly identical chemical twin to the diamond, we can satisfy some of our more extravagant whims without breaking the bank! And there’s no reason to let on that maybe that fabulous new ring you’re wearing isn’t really diamonds. Let everyone think your boyfriend or husband got a financial windfall and spent it all on you!

But when you can afford the real thing, there’s really nothing like it, is there? Is there a prized piece in your collection? Do you wear it often, or only on special occasions? If you don’t wear your jewelry often, give yourself a lift and start bringing that special ring out on regular occasions. It can certainly brighten up a dreary Monday when you’re wearing something special!